An organization is a separate legal entity inside your One Church Software account, such as a school run by the same ministry as your church. Each organization has its own name, EIN, logo, books, giving setup, texting number and public site.
Most churches have one organization, and that is all they will ever need. You only add a second one when part of your ministry is legally separate and needs its own books and giving.
Organizations, campuses and venues
These three words describe different things, and it helps to keep them apart:
Organization - a legal entity. It owns its campuses, books, giving setup, public site, mobile app version, texting number and sending domain.
Campus - a place an organization runs ministry from. Records can belong to a campus, and staff can be limited to the campuses they serve.
Venue - only a place that holds rooms and resources, such as a gym or a retreat center. Records cannot belong to a venue, and staff cannot be limited to one.
So one organization can have several campuses and venues, but a campus or venue always belongs to exactly one organization. What is the difference between a campus and a venue? explains which one to use for a location.
What an organization holds
Each organization stores its own details: a name (required, up to 200 characters), EIN, phone, email, website, logo, street, city, state, postal code, country, and its own time zone. Leave the time zone blank to use the account's. How do I edit an organization's details? explains how to change them.
Each organization also keeps its own settings for the areas below. Changing them for one organization leaves the others untouched.
Accounting - its own books, fiscal year start, and cash or accrual method.
Giving - its own merchant accounts, giving setup and giving statement details.
Texting - its own texting number and opt-in list.
Public site - its own public site and address.
People - its own family manager rules, directory rules and privacy defaults.
A few things stay on the account and are shared by every organization: the account time zone, primary color, login logo, icon, favicon and primary contact.
Two rules that never change
Warning: A gift belongs to one organization for good. Its organization never changes, and an accounting entry never spans two organizations.
There is no transfer between organizations. If money moves from one organization to another, each organization records its own side in its own books.
The default organization
Every account has exactly one default organization. The first time it is used, it takes your account's name, EIN, logo, address, phone, email and website. If those account details do not pass the organization's checks, such as an invalid email address, it stays named Default organization until someone edits it.
The default organization and the account stay in step:
Saving the default organization writes its name, EIN, phone and address back to the account. Leaving one of those blank clears it on the account too.
A blank email or website keeps the account's existing value.
The logo never writes back to the account.
You will need the Full Account permission, with no campus limit, organization limit or campus override, to change which organization is the default. The organization you pick must be active, and if the current default has an onboarded One Church Giving merchant account, the new default needs one too.
What a new organization starts with
When you add an organization, it starts with:
A giving statement footer.
Family managers allowed to edit their family members, but not to add or drop them.
Donors allowed to see their own pledges.
Directory rules set individually, and the standard privacy defaults.
A fiscal year starting in January, on the accrual method.
A public site with the organization switcher turned on, and access rules copied from the default organization.
A new organization does not get a branded web address, any campuses, or any add-ons. You set those up for it.
Tip: The first time you go from one organization to two, every record that has no campus, such as groups, events, forms and people, is assigned to the default organization. The new organization starts empty. If a record should reach both organizations, set its campuses to All afterward. How do I add a second organization? explains the cutover step by step.
Where to manage organizations
Organizations are managed at Settings & Tools (Cog icon in the tool-bar) > Your Organization > Account Settings, on the Organizations tab. Viewing them needs the Limited Account permission, and editing needs Full Account. Both are account-wide. If your account has more than one organization and you are limited to some of them, you will only see and edit the organizations you reach.